Residential real estate continues to be a significant asset in most estates we plan. It also continues to cause considerable issues with the estates and trusts we administer. Whether caused by poor financial planning, poor estate planning or poor execution, the result is always the same – increased family discord, frustration and expense during administration [...]
Estate Planning Update July 2023 2023 Annual Gift Tax Exclusion: increased to $17,000 per donor, per donee. 2023 Gift and Estate Tax Exemption: increased to $12,920,000 per donor through 2025, see #6, an increase of $860,000. Marital Deduction for Transfers to U.S. Spouse: remains unlimited. 2023 Generation Skipping Tax Exclusion: increased to $12,920,000 per donor [...]
Young Scottsdale couple accumulated several businesses and real estate properties owned by four different entities formed in three different states. DeAngelis Legal reviewed each entity’s purpose, tax records, formation documents and contact information and prepared the documents necessary to conform with how the entities were treated for income tax purposes, update each entity’s contact information [...]
At the end of the administration of a trust, the title company required the trustee to open a probate and obtain letters of personal representative before closing. This is the second matter in as many months where DeAngelis Legal has had to deal with simple mistakes that caused significant delays and additional expenses in trust [...]
Trustee of a large estate identified a small investment account that was not transferred to the decedent’s revocable trust during his lifetime (mistake #1). Unfortunately, while making a copy of his will prior to his death the decedent had mixed the pages of the original and the copy (mistake 2), so while we had the [...]
Why do we spend so much time and energy on updating corporate records? Soon after the entity is created, business owners move on to growing their business and often fail to pay attention to the details of maintaining proper corporate records. As a non-priority item, these tasks get pushed down and forgotten until an event [...]
A long-time Scottsdale closely held business owner desired to purchase a family member’s minority interest in the business. DeAngelis Legal worked with the buyer to evaluate alternatives and prepare the documents to evidence the transaction. The documents included an interest purchase agreement, promissory note, consent of the other members, assignment of interest and amendments to [...]
During the review and update of a new high net-worth Scottsdale couple’s estate plan, DeAngelis Legal identified a potentially large estate tax obligation caused by life insurance owned by the couple. DeAngelis Legal worked with the couple and their insurance advisor to identify and evaluate alternatives, which included an evaluation of how much life insurance [...]
Estate Planning Update January 2023 2023 Annual Gift Tax Exclusion: increased to $17,000 per donor, per donee. 2023 Gift and Estate Tax Exemption: increased to $12,920,000 per donor through 2025, see #6, an increase of $860,000. Marital Deduction for Transfers to U.S. Spouse: remains unlimited. 2023 Generation Skipping Tax Exclusion: increased to $12,920,000 per donor [...]
At its core, estate planning is setting the terms upon which assets are transitioned from a person, often a parent, to another such as a child. Without proper estate planning creating trusts for children, a parent’s assets become available to the child immediately if at the parent’s death: (a) the parent was not married to [...]
